


When It All Goes Up In Flames (We'll Be The Last Ones Standing)

by eruditeprincess



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Based off of Nerve, F/M, Nerve AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-29 19:38:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7696807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eruditeprincess/pseuds/eruditeprincess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Title taken from Ruelle - Up In Flames</p><p>Nobody expected it to go this far. Nobody anticipated a dare to go like this. Yet here she was, holding a gun to the man she trusted a mere three hours prior.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When It All Goes Up In Flames (We'll Be The Last Ones Standing)

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, I'll admit, this isn't the best, but this is still half decent, I suppose. I legit only wrote this because Nerve is being released over here in the UK next week and so I want to see it. An AU made sense for me. This was half written when I was ill, so don't be surprised if it is crap. I do hope you like this, I don't own The rights to any of this stuff.
> 
> My tumblr is erudite-princess. Enjoy!

Nobody could have anticipated it going this far. It was never meant to go this far. It was just meant to be one tiny dare to show her friends she wasn't dull. So how come she was now holding a gun, in the middle of a cushy suite at a fancy hotel, to the man that she had relied on a mere three hours prior?

Okay, maybe she should backtrack a little. How did it all start again? Oh, yeah, it was at the hand of a guy she had been wanting to ask out, who had instead fallen for her best friend, and him being stupid and showing her the advert for Nerve, implying that he might like her if she did one dare.

It had been backstage at their musical, where she was in charge of makeup. She had heard her best friend, Raven, showing off one of the dares she had completed the night before, something about having to go to a coffee shop and sing one of the songs in the charts whilst stripping. All for a pair of high heeled boots she'd been lusting after for months. When Finn had sat down in the chair for his make up, he had mentioned it briefly.  
"I bet you couldn't do one of Nerve's dares, Clarke."  
"Really?" she replied, carefully shading in his eyebrows.  
"I bet you're too straight-laced to do anything like that. I mean, I saw Raven's dare. That would be too wild for little Clarke, methinks," he smirked, and she pulled back, narrowing her eyes at him.  
"You think I'm straight-laced?" she questioned, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.  
"Well, you never take risks, go into the spotlight. You're Raven's dull shadow. You'd rather stay in the wings than stand on stage, and that's boring."  
"I'm not playing Nerve. It looks really sketchy," she leaned back in to contour his cheeks, focusing in on one point that was being difficult.  
"Well, all I'm saying is that girls who are boring aren't girls I will hang around with much," Finn turned to her as she finished up, and then gave her a winning smile. As he walked out, he murmured, "See you later, little princess," before swinging around the doorframe.

"Finn's right, you know, Clarke," Raven tossed her long dark hair over one shoulder as Clarke tightened her corset and reapplied the dark makeup.  
"On what?" Clarke replied, her brows furrowing in concentration.  
"You doing Nerve. You need to take a few risks. I dare you to sign up to Nerve and do a dare. Do you accept?" Clarke sighed as Raven tried to hide her smile.  
"Fine. But only one dare. That's it."

The show went brilliantly for the first night, and Clarke found herself signing up to Nerve. As she scrolled through the player dares, she watched a few videos of other dares. She clicked through the coffee shop dares and eventually settled on tipping water over her head. It was about as adventurous as she'd choose to get, she thought.

Oh, boy, she was wrong.

The first dare she did blew up over Nerve. She might have blamed that on the lovely white blouse she chose to wear that day, and the cute lacy bra she'd matched with it was suddenly visible to all who chose to watch. Including, incidentally, Finn, who had commented a Nice rack, little princess. Never thought you had it in you.

When, the next night, she had received a text from Nerve, she didn't think much of doing another dare. She'd just heard Finn confess his love to Raven backstage, and seen her best friend embrace the guy she'd liked. When she saw that her dare was to kiss a stranger at the same coffee shop as the night before, she wasn't so sure, but the tempting prize of a dress and matching heels she had been considering for almost a year pushed her into it. It's just one dare, right?  
Right?

She hadn't anticipated going into said coffee shop and kissing a stranger also playing Nerve, getting one of the baristas she knew to film it. The man in question that she chose was tall, with dark curly hair and constellations of freckles dotting across his face and sinfully dark eyes that startled her with the intensity when he looked up from the copy of The Illiad he'd been reading. Of course she'd kissed him; she just didn't expect it to be that good, but it was. He was hot, she wanted to give the Nerve audiences a good show. It made sense.

She definitely hadn't anticipated him coming up to her merely ten minutes after the incident, a curt, "They want us to team up," his only speech.  
"What?" she questioned as her phone pinged.  
"Nerve want me to team up with you. Check your phone."  
"Okay," she murmured, flipping her phone over to discover a text reading _Go with him to the city_ , offering her an art kit worth 200 bucks she'd been saving up for to do it. "Why would they want me to team up with you?" Clarke asked after a pause.  
"They like the show we put on together. Relax, I've got our transport covered. We'll be fine."  
"I don't even know you," she furrowed her brow, and he let out a small chuckle.  
"I'm Bellamy. And you are?"  
"Clarke."  
"Do you feel more comfortable taking a ride to the city with me now you know my name?" Bellamy smiled at her and she was struck by how beautiful he looked when he smiled.  
"Not until I see your vehicle," he flashed her a grin as he took her hand, leading her out of the door, her phone in hand.

"Here we go. This is me," he let go of her hand and spun around, revealing a motorcycle with two helmets balancing on the seats.  
"You expect me to ride on it?"  
"Do you trust me? I've never crashed and I've been riding this for two years now. It's just one ride to complete a dare."  
"Okay," she gave him a small smile as he tossed her a helmet and climbed on the bike, waiting for her to do up her helmet. She noticed his phone was on a special clip on the bike, but didn't think much of it as she locked her arms around his chest and watched him click accept, her head on his shoulder. The next sound she heard was the bike starting up, and they were zooming off into the night, the headlights of their small town fading away as they sped towards the city along an empty road. She felt herself loosen up as the journey continued and Bellamy carefully controlled the motorbike as they saw the bright lights marking the skyscrapers for all to see, making them glow against the ink black backdrop of the sky. She let out a scream as they slid along the streets, and she peeked over Bellamy's shoulder to see the viewer counts reaching the thousands, ticking up as quickly as they were driving. She heard the ping of the phone, indicating the dare was over, and Bellamy found a street to park on, slowing down gradually and letting Clarke get her bearings.  
"That was awesome!" she enthused as she unclasped her fingers and got off the bike, clipping off the helmet and handing it back to him once she had pulled it off her head. She watched him shake out his curls as he took off his helmet. She repeated the motion and heard a low chuckle.  
"What?" she smirked at him as he laughed.  
"Nothing. You just look funny like that, Clarke."  
"Really?" Their phones both pinged as she responded, and she opened up the message to reveal the picture of a dress and a _Try on this dress, 800 bucks in it for you_ and an address from Nerve. She typed the address and saw it to be a high end boutique 300 metres from where she stood. She spun around in the street, seeing Bellamy to do the same, and they both started walking to the store.

When they arrived, she sped up to the closest shop assistant, asking "Hi, do you know where this dress is?" and got led to the second floor to find the dress, a stunning blue one that sparkled under the lighting. She went into the changing room, noting the closed curtain of the cubicle opposite her, and stripped in her own cubicle. She left her black boots on, slipping the dress over her small form as she stood in front of the section of the cubicle her phone was clipped to. She blew the camera a kiss as she finished zipping the dress up and picked it up, stepping out and leaving her clothes behind. As she stepped out, a wolf whistle was emitted from the man across from her.  
"You clean up well, Clarke. Look like a princess in that dress," Bellamy said. She glanced up to see him in a well-fitted suit, his curls still wild.  
"You don't look too bad yourself, Bellamy. You look positively dashing," she gave him a smile.  
"Let's get out of these outfits and back into our usual clothes. This suit is starting to feel like the price is too much."  
"I agree," she turned back to her cubicle, only to find it empty, "Uh, Bellamy..."  
"Your clothes gone too?" he questioned, and then groaned, "Oh, shit."  
"Shit is about right," her phone pinged, as did his, and a countdown was displayed, with _Leave the store_ above a rapidly decreasing timer.  
"We have to leave."  
"I'm not shoplifting!" she hissed.  
"We don't have a choice!" he whispered back to her. She thought for a few moments, and then grunted.  
"Technically, it just says we have to leave the store, not the state of dress," Bellamy started to grin as she spoke, and suddenly she was stripping the dress off and waiting for him to finish.

That was how she ended up running out of a high end department store hand in hand with possibly the hottest guy she'd ever met, racing towards his motorcycle, which held two bags, one containing their old clothes and one containing the outfits they'd tried out, with shoes included. She didn't question how they knew her shoe size as she slipped on the dress and pumps, and Bellamy stored their clothes in the storage at the back of the motorcycle. He took her hand and suddenly his lips were pressed against hers, his other hand tangling in her hair. They broke off when her phone beeped, breathing heavily, the phone displaying an address and a message reading _One hour. Be there. Grand prizes available._

Bellamy tapped her on the shoulder as she read the message. "Same message as me?" he questioned.  
"You got an address?" she asked, and he nodded, "We'd better go."

When she arrived at the cushy suite, they played for about another hour before Nerve alerted the two of them to the guns in a cupboard. A message was displayed on the screens, which had been giving them dares like Drink three bottles of beer and dance for thirty seconds, no stopping and Complete the interview in the booth, along with Walk across the ladder suspended above the table. They were both told to pick up a gun and hold it aimed at the other's heart, keeping it stable for one hour. So now she was holding a gun to Bellamy, waiting for him to comply with what Nerve was telling them to do. All for the glory of the watchers.  
"You don't have to do this, Clarke," Bellamy warned, keeping hold of his gun but not holding it up.  
"Just hold up the gun, Bellamy. It won't kill you," she watched him flinch at those words and realisation dawned on her.  
"Last time I held up a gun, I shot my sister's boyfriend in the shoulder. She screamed at me and hit me and she went away. I've not seen her since. I signed up for Nerve to try to find her, get a chance to even get her to talk to me and show her I'm better now. I guess if I hold up this gun, I show her I haven't changed," he cast his eyes downward.  
"I joined for a stupid reason, Bellamy. I joined to impress some dickhead guy who I knew liked my best friend, because who wouldn't? I did it to prove to him I wasn't some straight-laced little girl but someone who could complete a dare. I wanted to prove I wasn't dull and could be in the spotlight. I thought that winning these prizes would be worth it, to prove myself worthy of that asshole. I guess I was wrong."  
"Do you still like him?" Bellamy asked gently.  
"I don't think I ever did. I think it was only me thinking I did because he was the only one to pay attention to me."  
"Oh," Clarke felt her hand begin to shake as she heard him speak, "We had fun, didn't we, Clarke?"  
"We did have fun, Bellamy."  
"You think we should do this?" he asked, stepping towards her, and she took a step towards him.  
"I'm only in it for the full ride to art school they promised. Nothing I can't achieve myself, I don't think."  
"You'd lose your other prizes if you step out now. You're the only one of us still going now."  
"Then I say we give them a good show," she said, stepping towards him and closing the distance between their lips, dropping the gun.

She found that he had soft lips and tasted like the beer they'd drank and his hand was hot on her back, toying with the zip. When they eventually pulled away from each other, she saw that his lips were swollen and his eyes were darker than before. She strode to the centre of the room.  
"You were willing to let us risk killing each other for a good show, huh? Well, I don't think that murder would make a good show, if you'd made us shoot each other. So I quit. I forfeit my prizes. I'm not risking my life for some stupid dare."

With that, she took Bellamy's hand and linked their fingers together, his warm palm pressing against hers, and she walked out.

When she got home, she found a box on the porch of the house, containing the dress and shoes she'd played for on that first dare. A note was included, an elegant script reading _We still have you under our thumb. Don't think you can escape so easily, Clarke, especially not after the show you pulled off. We'll be in contact. Nerve._

**Author's Note:**

> Review? Even if you don't like it?


End file.
